(Science and technology) The Troll A - A Record Breaking Gas Platform
By Patrick Omari
Rising out of the North Sea where it takes a lashing from some of the roughest waters on the planet, the Troll A platform is one of the largest and most complex engineering projects in the world and, when it was towed into place in 1996, became the largest structure ever to be made and stands in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest offshore gas platform.
For any fan of engineering feats, the Troll A platform is something to admire. Even from afar it’s scale is jaw-dropping. This natural gas platform in the Troll gas field has an overall height of 472 metres. Put into context; that’s 148 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower and some sixty metres taller than the Word Trade Centre stood before it was destroyed. The construction involved 100,000 tonnes of steel - enough for 15 Eiffel Towers - and 245,000m3 of concrete, that’s the equivalent of 215,000 foundations for usual houses.
Of its 472 metres, the platform stands 303 metres below the surface of the sea. As each of the four legs of the platform are subjected to huge amounts of pressure - especially at the bottom - the construction method had to ensure that the concrete would be flawless, if it wasn’t the consequences would be disastrous. Accordingly, the legs are made up of over 1 metre-thick steel reinforced slip-formed concrete. This means that the concrete was formed in one continuous pour to mean there was no seams or cracks and each of the legs is a mathematically joined composite of conical cylinders flaring out to larger dimensions at the top and bottom.
Each of the Troll A’s mammoth-like legs are joined by a reinforced concrete box interconnecting the legs. This “chord shortener” serves as vital a purpose as the thickness and reinforcement of the concrete. As the Troll A is constantly hit by waves of varying size and force it’s structure is subjected to resonance. Sustained exposure to a certain resonance can crumble even the thickest of structures, as evinced by the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington in 1940. The concrete box that connects the Troll A’s legs dampens out the resonances by returning the legs’ natural frequencies.
A structure worthy of admiration, the Troll A was built by Norwegian contractors with work commencing on the base in July 1991. The deck was constructed separately and were joined in 1995 when the base was partially submerged - the only way to get the deck atop the giant legs. In an operation that took seven days, the platform was towed more than 200 kilometers out to the Troll field before being fixed to the sea floor with each leg using a group of 40 metre tall vacuum-anchors to keep it in place.
The purpose of all this awe-inspiring engineering? Natural gas. The gas rises through 40 wells to be exported through a series of pipes at over 2,000 miles-per-hour. That’s a lot of gas at a high speed from a structure that weighs 656,000 tons with new gas compressors scheduled to further increase production volume from Troll A.
atrick is an expert travel researcher and writer currently researching Manchester Airport Parking, Manchester Airport Hotels and Manchester Airparks
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Chemistry: Brief Overview Of Definition and Principle Sections.
By Emily Butler
Chemistrys one of the very much important and vast areas of natural science, study of substances and their properties, organization and the conversion occurring as a result of chemical changes. Get more about chemistry search engine on the Inet. Since all substance consists of atoms, that owing to chemical bonds can make molecules, the chemistry explores generally interplay amid atoms and molecules as an outcome of such interplay. Chemical constituents and compositions, in addition to objective laws, which subdue different chemical changes are all the subject matter of chemistry.
Parts
As far as contemporary chemistry is an extensive area of natural study, lots of its sections have appeared in essence independent but all the same are closely associated scientific branches. Investigated objects (substances) are the origin of division of chemistry into inorganic and organic. The main point of chemical phenomena and their shared objective laws on the basis of physical approaches and experimental information are unfolded by physical chemistry. Electrochemistry, quantal chemistry, chemical kinetics and chemical thermodynamics are all subdivisions of it. Other autonomous branches are colloid and analytical chemistry.
Chemical engineering sets forth the technological foundations of modern production. It is a knowledge of saving ways and tools of industrial chemical processing of fabricated natural materials and man-made acquisition of chemical items that dont exist in nature. Chemistry forms a combination with other associated natural studies and constitutes bioorganics, bioorganic chemistry, photochemistry, radiation chemistry, geochemistry, etc.
The section of chemistry called Organic Chemistry examines the structure, qualities, methods of fusion of organic compositions and changes amidst them. The undermentioned aims, empiric ways and theorctical producing compose the subject matter of organic chemistry:
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Analytical chemistrys systematize into a qualitative analysis aimed at determining what material, in what form there are in the pattern, and quantitative analysis aimed at determining how much of the substance (of components, ions, molecular shapes, so on) there is in the example.
Determination of basic structure of material items is called elemental analysis. Clarifying the organization of chemical combinations and blends at the molecular stage is called molecular analysis. One of the molecular analyses of chemical junctions is a structural analysis that explores the special atomic organization of material, the empiric formula, molecular weight, etc. Identification of the characteristics of organic, inorganic and bio-chemical items are the principle aims of analytical chemistry. In accordance with functional classes organic combinations may be explored with the help of functional analysis.
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